Church · Vagharshapat, Vagharshapat community, Armavir
Saint Gayane Church
Սուրբ Գայանե եկեղեցի · St. Gayane Monastery
Built in 630 under Catholicos Ezr I within walking distance of Etchmiadzin Cathedral, Saint Gayane joins a three-aisled basilica to a central dome, and its arched western portico shelters the graves of senior clergy.
Where it is
40.1575, 44.2919
Why go
UNESCO describes Saint Gayane as an early example of the domed basilica, a form that later spread through Armenia and western Asia, and the church has kept that 7th-century plan despite repairs to the dome and some ceilings in 1652. Inside, four free-standing piers carry the drum and divide the nave from the aisles. The portico on the west front has frescoes of clergymen in its niches and saints on the tympanum above the door. It belongs to the Cathedral and Churches of Echmiatsin and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots World Heritage property, and is normally seen on the same visit as the cathedral.
Near Saint Gayane Church
Church
Etchmiadzin Cathedral
The mother cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Vagharshapat, built according to the chronicler Agathangelos after a vision of St Gregory the Illuminator and rebuilt in 483–484.
0 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Shoghakat Church
Shoghakat, meaning 'drop of light', is a domed single-nave church of 1694 near Saint Hripsime in Vagharshapat, built by Prince Aghamal Sorotetsi where tradition places the martyrdom of Hripsime's companions.
2 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Church
Saint Hripsime Church
Catholicos Komitas's church of 618 on the eastern edge of Vagharshapat, raised over the tomb of the martyr Hripsime on a plan of four apses with niches between them and rooms in the corners.
2 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ
Archaeological site
Metsamor Archaeological Site and Museum
An excavated fortress-settlement on a hill beside the Metsamor river near Taronik, occupied from the Bronze Age onwards, with a site museum showing finds from the Early Bronze Age to the late Middle Ages.
10 km · straight-line distance; driving distance and time differ